Adding ice to a drinking cup is very commonly performed in many fast food restaurants for the purpose of providing a cold drink to the customer. Since ice commonly floats to the surface of the drink and the straw intake located at the lower extremity of the straw is normally at the bottom of the cup, the liquid at the bottom near the straw intake is not as cold as it could be. One solution is to use a large amount of ice in proportion to the liquid in the cup. This approach has the unfortunate result of diluting the drink when the ice melts and of wasting ice. Existing art also has the disadvantage of keeping the ice dispersed in the liquid, rather than clumped together, thus hastening its melting.
Several approaches have been attempted to solve this problem by keeping the ice at the bottom of the cup. For example in U.S. Pat. No. 1,847,879 Knecht makes use of a perforated disk attached to the bottom of a straw to keep the ice down. Because of the buoyancy of the ice, this approach can only work with cylindrical glasses or cups and when the disk has essentially the same diameter as the cylinder. A smaller diameter or a conically shaped cup would allow the ice to creep around the disk and float up to the surface.
Another approach described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,375 by Fantacone describes a flexible ice trap in the shape of a net configured as an inverted cone (with the base on top) which holds the drinking straw in a hole located on the axis or the net. The net is designed to operate with a cup which is also conically inverted. The net “locks” in position in the cup as it is pushed downward. The problem with this approach is that the net is an inverted cone and therefore, the ice which is buoyant, congregates at its rim rather than at its center where the straw intake is located, thereby defeating the purpose of keeping the ice as close to the straw intake as possible. Furthermore, locking the straw in place may prevent the drinker from moving the ice trap around and capturing ice cubes underneath.
Yet another approach by Merino in U.S. Pat. No. 7,909,176 relies on a straw passing through a hole at the tips of an inverted conical net. Two washers are frictionally attached to the straw and are of a size larger than the inner diameter of the hole at the tip of the net, thereby holding the net in place between them. There are several problems with this approach: 1) The user must assemble the straw, washers and net; 2) even though the net is prevented by the washers from sliding along the axis of the straw, it can still yaw and pitch with respect to the straw; 3) washers can be difficult to attach and to slide along the straw without damaging the straw; and 4) loose parts can fall in the drink, thereby posing a danger.
Further features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention over the prior art will be more fully understood when considered with respect to the following detailed description and claims.